Tectonic reported recently that Sun's initial contribution included the application programming interface that will enable developers to read, write and work with ODF documents as well as create applications that will support them. The ODF Validator and other conformance and processing tools are housed within the project, but its organizers are also inviting developers to house their ODF libraries and other tools there as well.

Bob Picciano, general manager of Lotus, envisions "each document literally taking on a life of its own, conveying the actionable insight and business value intended by its creators, rather than the static ledger we have been forced to accept - until now."